A C-arm X-ray system is known for instance from German Patent Disclosure DE 42 37 013 A1. The X-ray system known from DE 42 37 013 A1 has a handle on a picture-taking system supported on the C-arm, and a force pickup is associated with this handle. A user control force which can be detected serves as a guide variable in a closed-loop control circuit, and an acceleration of the motor-adjustable C-arm is the controlled by the variable. In this way, the user is meant to be given the impression that he is moving the X-ray system with substantially smaller masses or lesser moments of inertia. For tripping further control functions, which go beyond purely controlling motion, buttons or keys are pressed by the user. Such buttons are typically disposed not on the C-arm or on the picture-taking system connected to the C-arm but rather on a separate control unit. This arrangement may make operating the X-ray system ergonomically unfavorable and time-consuming.